SERIALously - 131: ‘Quiet on Set’ EXPLOSIVE Docuseries + Missing College Student Riley Strain’s Bank Card Found & New Police Video

Episode Date: March 21, 2024

A new docuseries called “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV” was recently released focusing on child actors and some of the adult staff members at Nickelodeon in the 1990s and 2000s. The series highlights ongoing inappropriate conduct as well as sexual abuse allegations. The search for missing 22-year-old University of Missouri student, Riley Strain, is still ongoing. Riley disappeared while on a fraternity trip in downtown Nashville on Friday March 8th. On March 17th a group of tiktokers, who were volunteering in the search for Riley, found his bank card by the riverbank. Today's Sponsors: Beam: Get up to 40% off for a limited time when you go to https://www.shopbeam.com/ANNIEELISE and use code ANNIEELISE Astepro: Go to https://www.Asteproallergy.com for a special discount today. Chad Doerman Case: https://youtu.be/HMo6DFirytg?si=CBjidF1IyNPdB9ya  https://youtu.be/agcnaZ8qyZs?si=EgmOKFzeaqz1c2FZ Dan Schneider Full Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX9pLTuGX_M Riley Strain Police Body Cam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHYGgoB27QQ Follow the podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/serialouslypod/   Shop the Merch: www.shop10tolife.com  Follow the podcast on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@serialouslypodcast    Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/annieelise   All Social Media Links: https://www.flowcode.com/page/annieelise_   SERIALously FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/SERIALouslyAnnieElise/   About Me: https://annieelise.com/   For Business Inquiries: [e-mail]  Sources: NewsNation Law & Crime TODAY WKRN News 2 WZTV FOX 17 Nashville TMZ Audio Credits: Dan Warp https://www.youtube.com/@DanWarp  NewsNation FOX 17 Nashville

Hey, True Crime Besties, welcome back to an all new episode of Serialistly with me, Annie Elise. Woo! Wow, I hope you are buckled up. I hope you are in a place of zen, guys, because boy oh boy do we have a lot to talk about today. I feel like always I say that because there's never any shortage in true crime, but I feel like this week especially there has just been so much going on. I mean from the new documentary Quiet On Set, all of the crazy allegations, not crazy allegations,

but like crazy information I should say that's coming out and that is starting to come to the surface from past behavior. There's updates in the Chad Dorman case, which if you're not familiar with that one, don't worry I will be giving you a recap. We have to talk about Riley Strain of course, who is the boy missing from Nashville, Tennessee. I mean there's some murder-suicide cases going on with these two college girls. We have got so, so much to go over. Not to mention the motion hearing, which I just was watching, go down for Karen Reed. Guys, I'm speechless. I feel like there's so much I want to talk to you about. I could be on this mic for literally hours, but I'm gonna try to stay organized. I'm gonna try to stay concise and just kind of keep things clear.

Apologies in advance for any pulling you may hear with my S's when I talk. I'm still a little bit swollen from my jaw, but hopefully we are at the tail end of this. But trust me, I look worse than I sound. I look like a squirrel got punched in the face, swallowed a beaver, I don't know. I just, it's for sure not cute. But anyways, that doesn't matter, right? We don't care about shit like that here. So anyways, like I said, we're going to talk about a few new cases and some case updates, so let's just jump right in. I want to start with Chad Dorman. So as a reminder, if you're not familiar with this case, I'm going to give a little bit of a recap. We did cover the episode in its entirety in an earlier episode here, so as always I will link the full episodes to these cases in the show notes. But Chad Dorman is the father that murdered,

allegedly murdered I should say, his three boys in Ohio in June of 2023, and he's back in the headlines this week. But I want you to be warned before I go into the details and before you especially listen to that deep dive episode. This case is one of the more dark and disturbing murders that I think I've ever covered. As a short recap, a 911 call had come in to the police station by a woman who was screaming that her quote, babies had been shot.

The boys, Clayton, who was seven years old, Hunter who was four, and Chase who was only three years old, were lined up by Chad before he allegedly shot them execution style. One of the boys tried to run away during this, but the police say that Chad quote hunted him down and then shot him. Like I said, it is truly a horrifying case. When the police got there on scene, Chad was sitting on the steps of his house with a shotgun right next to him and he was acting totally nonchalant. We put the body cam footage over in the video version, but he's acting like nothing's wrong. He's

just smoking a cigarette while his children were literally laying in the yard. So the police immediately tackled Chad to the ground and they handcuffed him. Then on the body cam footage, one of the officers asked Chad what was going on. And Chad just calmly said nothing. When he was taken into custody, he talked to the officers and he confessed that he had actually been planning this

for a very long time. And he told the officers exactly what he did. However, this week a judge ruled that his confession, the one that he gave, is inadmissible, because they found out that Chad was not properly advised of his Miranda rights. In the ruling, the judge wrote, quote, The defendant's Miranda rights were violated when the custodial interrogation continued after the defendant had unequivocally and unambiguously evoked his right to counsel when he told the detectives, I'll wait for a lawyer.

I don't know. Give me a couple days. I can talk to a lawyer and get nice, good answers. Now, as if you're not enraged already enough, get this. Chad's lawyers previously filed 30 motions that the judge has not yet ruled on, including one motion to not allow photos of the crime scene to be shown during the trial, and for the judge to allow some of the jurors to be convicted felons who have served their time. Which, we've seen this a couple times in previous cases, but it still always strikes

me as kind of like the audacity of it all, like you're really gonna have convicted felons who have served their time be a juror? Okay. So anyways, right now Chad is scheduled to go to trial in July, but it might end up being pushed back. TBD, I'll keep you updated. Now shifting gears a little bit into a murder-suicide, I mentioned it at the top of this episode and it is truly a very heartbreaking case. Now this story is coming out of Miami and recently made headlines. It's about two former college hockey teammates, 25 year old Megan Moore and 23 year old Sydney Capilino. They were killed at their Miami apartment on Saturday, March 16th and they were killed by Megan's ex-boyfriend who then turned the gun and killed himself. According to the police, the ex-boyfriend was a 40-year-old man named Luis Nepoles.

Police arrived at the scene around 9 p.m., and they found Megan suffering from a gunshot wound outside of the apartment. As they tried to save her, they then heard more shots coming from inside the apartment. Police believe that Luis shot Megan outside the apartment door, then went inside and shot Sydney, then shot himself. Some of Megan's friends spoke to the media and said that she and Luis had a very rocky relationship, saying, quote, you could tell that there were some issues there, but not to this point. We can't believe that this happened. According to reports, all three of them lived together at this apartment complex.

But it's also a little confusing because the reports also say, quote, records show that Luis was evicted from a Coral Gables apartment in late 2023 due to non-payment. In a note to the court, he said that he was unable to pay his $2,300 monthly rent because he lost his restaurant job. He also wrote that he had just gotten a new job and would soon be able to clear the debt, but he was later booted from the apartment. So I'm not exactly sure if that means that they had all lived together but the girls kicked him out, or if maybe he was living with them after he got kicked out of a different

unit in that same apartment complex. I'm not sure what the exact details are, and the police also haven't revealed a true motive yet. Clearly, I want to say not retaliation, but it sounds like a crime of passion, but what the true rooted motive is, we aren't sure. Now just kind of going up the coast a little bit to Georgia, I want to talk to you about this new case because two men, 37-year-old Stephen Glosser and 34 year old Caleb Kinsey, were indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly bombing a woman's house one day after she moved in, and also for plotting to kill her daughter.

Both men were charged with stalking, use of an explosive to commit another felony, conspiracy to use an explosive to commit a felony, conspiracy to use an explosive to commit a felony, and possession of an unregistered destructive device. Caleb was also charged with giving a false statement during the purchase of a firearm and possession of firearms by a convicted felon. Investigators say that one of the men had, quote, some sort of relationship with the victim.

Then, between December 2022 and January 2023, Stephen and Caleb allegedly stalked the victim while planning to, get this, shoot arrows through the front door and also buying and freeing a large python into the home to eat the victim's daughter. Can you believe that guys? It sounds, it's crazy right? Freeing a large python into the home to eat the victim's daughter. Can you believe that guys? It sounds, it's crazy, right? Freeing a large python into the home to eat the victim's daughter. They also planned to mail the victim dead rats and animal feces, scalp her and bomb her house.

Police also say that Steven found out where the victim lived and mapped out her house entirely. And then Caleb was the one to actually build the bomb. So, they set this plan, this wild plan, in motion, and on January 13th, the victim's home exploded. The Bryan County Sheriff's Office said that the woman and her family had moved into their home just one day earlier, however, none of their personal items had made it into the

house yet. No one was injured, and most of the damage occurred in the garage. But how beyond scary is this? Like thank god nobody was injured, but somebody who not only wants to bomb your house, but then kill your daughter, scalp her, feed her to a python. It's so barbaric and just unhinged. That's probably the right word. Unhinged. But a lot of these creeps never cease to amaze me. So let's talk about Quiet on the Set. Speaking of creeps, because I want to talk about Dan Schneider for a second here, in addition to so, so much more regarding this whole like Nickelodeon catastrophe abuse saga. A new docu-series called Quiet on the Set,

The Dark Side of Kids TV, was recently released on HBO Max or now known as Max. I think that's what they're calling it now. But the series focuses on child actors and some of the adult staff members at Nickelodeon. This is taking place specifically from the 1990s and the 2000s. Now the documentary discussed two convicted sex offenders who were on the set back then. Jason Handy, a production assistant, and Brian Peck, who let me just say is not, not, not related to Josh Peck from Drake and Josh, because there has been a lot of confusion out there and I just want to make it clear he is in no way related. But Brian Peck was an acting and dialogue coach.

So both of these men were convicted while working on Nickelodeon. Law enforcement had searched Jason's home in 2003, and they found sexually explicit images of children. They also found a journal where he describes himself as a, quote, pedophileophile, full blown. That is a direct quote. Jason was sentenced to six years in prison in 2004 after pleading no contest to two felony counts involving two girls. Now I want to talk to you about Brian Peck because he has definitely been a hyper focus of not only the docu-series but also the chatter online on TikTok everywhere.

And now I don't want to say fun fact, interesting fact, creepy fact. During a party at Brian's house years and years and years ago, one of the child actors saw that Brian actually had a self-portrait by the convicted serial killer John Wayne Gacy. This portrait was hanging on his walls. So now people, of course course as you can imagine the sleuths online are like of course he idolized Gacy. He was going to be a creep. He was bound to be a creep. Like the writing's on the wall. So okay let me talk to you about what's going on here.

In the docu-series Drake Bell, the star from Drake and Josh, that huge show that was all over Nickelodeon, he said that Brian sexually abused him. Drake said that the abuse took place at Brian's home over several months. Drake said quote, he had pretty much worked his way into every aspect of my life. He also said that he started to drive a wedge between him and his dad who was Drake's manager at the time. Once Drake's dad was then essentially out of the picture, Brian started driving Drake all around LA, also having him spend the night, when he was just 15 years old.

And Drake said that that's when Brian started to sexually abuse him. So Drake said that he finally, quote, exploded while he was on the phone with his mom one day. He says that the police had him call Brian on a recorded line to get a confession. And then Brian was arrested shortly afterward. In October of 2004, Brian pleaded no contest to two charges and was found guilty of both.

He spent 16 months in prison and he had to register as a sex offender. Now, what I want to say is this lawsuit from 2004 against Brian, it had been sealed up until now. Nobody knew who was the person making these allegations, who it was, until Drake came out and said, it was me, here's what happened. In another interesting part in the documentary too, Drake's talking about how he had like made this wedge between him and his parents and him and his dad, and how one time he was over at his girlfriend's house and the girlfriend's mom actually picked up on some weird behavior. She overheard a phone call between Drake and Brian and when they

got off the phone she's like something isn't right here. Like something about this conversation doesn't sit right. I don't feel good about this. So she apparently called Drake's mom immediately and said I'm taking Drake to our family therapist tomorrow. Something's not right here. And apparently, according to Drake, he went to this therapist and like, I don't know if he, I don't, I can't recall if it was that same day where he just kind of unloaded what was going on, what the truth was, but I've seen so many of these clips on social media as well just kind of marking this woman as a hero. She knew something in her gut was wrong. She intervened not to place blame on parents, but why she was able to pick up on that behavior and maybe his parents were not.

I don't know. I wasn't there. I don't know what exactly was going on. But it is pretty incredible that she was able to identify that something was off and then step in. In a statement on March 15th, Nickelodeon responded to this docuseries, to all of these allegations, to the lawsuit, to Drake speaking out and they said quote, now that Drake Bell has disclosed his identity as the plaintiff in the 2004 case, we are dismayed and saddened to learn of the trauma that he has endured and we commend and support the strength required to come forward." Which I don't know what kind of statement we were really hoping for. I feel like that's a safe blanket statement, but okay, at least you said something.

Now the documentary also focused on Dan Schneider, a producer who had a huge, huge mega influence on shaping Nickelodeon, Creating shows, launching careers of actors who would become major stars like Amanda Bynes, Drake Bell, who's the girl I'm thinking of? I think Jeanette McCurdy at 1.2, also the girl Victoria Justice. I mean he was like in that whole slew of child stars. Even Jamie Lynn Spears, which we're gonna talk to about in a minute here. So in this, some of the writers, the child actors, who now are adults of course, and even some other staff who worked with Dan, said that they felt that the atmosphere behind the scenes was beyond toxic and beyond inappropriate. Now of course, looking back in hindsight. Now this wasn't talked

about outright in the documentary. However, disturbing allegations have come out over the years about Dan. Several in the last few years, but really dating as far back as like 10 years, guys. One of those allegations was about all of his inappropriate behavior with Amanda Bynes. There was video that came out showing him in a hot tub with her. He was always asking like her other child stars, females specifically, to like give him massages. He would massage them and he would really, I mean I don't want to say this term loosely, but it appeared he was almost trying to groom these girls from an outsider's perspective. That's just my opinion because they would develop this very close bond with him

to where they would be spending so much bond with him to where they would be spending so much time with him on set, off set. He was doing all this like behind the scenes of vlogging recording which was really weird like playing with the kids like not playing like that but like being playful and being flirtatious and it's very very off-putting when you see all of it but there have been all of these allegations about his inappropriate behavior, right? And again, stemming back like 10 years or so. But what's so crazy about this, and the reason why I even used that term grooming, which again is just my opinion, is because with Amanda Bynes specifically, it got to the point where she tried to get emancipated from her parents to go live with Dan and his wife. When she was just

a kid, just a teenager, I think she was only 15 years old at the time, maybe 13, 13 or 15, so regardless, a young teenager, and it was just beyond inappropriate. So people have been highlighting his behavior over the years. Nothing has really come of it. People have called him out as a scumbag, but now that this documentary has kind of come out, it's really just thrown everything right back into the spotlight. Nickelodeon stopped working with Dan back in 2018. Now, although a lot of these allegations have come out, they've really just been that. Nobody has really expressed something that Dan directly did to them. It has all been hearsay.

It's been rumors. Nobody, to my knowledge yet, has come forward or gone to law enforcement saying, Dan did X, Y, and Z to me. I am a victim of abuse for this reason. And over the years, he has consistently denied allegations of any sort of misconduct. But most recently, he told The Today Show through a spokesperson that he, quote, expected and asked a lot from his teams. The statement says, Dan expected and asked a lot from his teams. They worked long hours and consistently made successful shows.

In the challenges of production, Dan could get frustrated at times, and he understands why some employees found that intimidating and stressful. But he also knows some people did not have a positive experience, and for that, he is truly sorry. Dan knows that he should have done better, and he feels awful about anyone who saw him in his worst instead of his best. The fact is that many of the kids on these shows are put in the untenable position of becoming the breadwinner for their family, and also the pressure that comes along with that.

Add on top of that the difficulties of growing up and having to do so under the spotlight while working a demanding job all as a child. Nobody understood that pressure better than Dan, and that's why he was their biggest champion. Dan has said himself that he was a tough boss to work for, and that if he could do things over again, he would act differently. But let's be clear, when Dan departed Nickelodeon, a full investigation was done, and again, what was found is that he was a challenging, tough, and at times, inappropriate and demanding

person to work for and with, but nothing else. Dan also did an interview with The Hollywood Reporter and I'm not going to play the whole thing but I wanted to play a few clips and I will link the full interview in the show notes. But before I dive into my list of topics that I'd like to discuss, is there anything you'd like to start off with? Absolutely. Watching over the past two nights was very difficult. Me facing my past behaviors, some of which are embarrassing and that I regret, and I definitely owe some people a pretty strong apology. Let's talk about the massages.

Okay. Watching the content yesterday, it was disturbing. It was wrong. It was wrong that I ever put anybody in that position. It was a wrong thing to do. I'd never do it today. I'm embarrassed that I did it then. I apologize to do. I'd never do it today. I'm embarrassed that I did it then. I apologize to anybody that I ever put in that situation.

And even additionally, I apologize to the people who were walking around Video Village or wherever they happened because there were lots of people there who witnessed it who also may have felt uncomfortable. So I owe them an apology as well. Yeah. Now we know you've had a lot of success over two decades.

Thousands of people have worked with you for you. Let's speak directly to the people who did not have a good experience with you. Okay. I would like to speak to those people because I hate that anybody worked for me and didn't have a good time. You know me. You've been on my sets. Look, I've had some employees that have worked for me for 10 years, some more than 20 years, who would work with me again, but not everybody. There's still a significant number that didn't have

a great time working for me, so my batting average isn't nearly high enough in that area. And the way they wouldn't get the best of me is that I would let the pressure of doing 40 or even more episodes per year, I would let that pressure get to me, which a good boss should never ever do. Was there specific things that you were doing?

Sure, I would snap at people sometimes. I would be snarky when I could've given them a nicer answer. I would not give people the time that they needed. I would be in too big a hurry to get on to the next thing I had to do. And watching that show, it made me, there were so many times I wanted to pick up a phone and call some of those people and say, I'm so sorry and let's talk about it. And I wish you'd had a better time and I wish I could have shown you a better

experience. Yeah. You've written hundreds of episodes, thousands of jokes have been told. Yeah. But currently where we are, some people think that some of those jokes are inappropriate for children. What do you think of that? All these jokes that you're speaking of, that the show covered over the past two nights, every one of those jokes was written for a kid audience because kids thought they were funny and only funny, okay?

Now we have some adults looking back at them 20 years later through their lens and they're looking at them and they're saying, you know, I don't think that's appropriate for a kid show. And I have no problem with that. If that's how anyone feels, let's cut those jokes out of the show. And I have no problem with that. If that's how anyone feels, let's cut those jokes out of the show. Just like I would have done 20 years ago or 25 years ago. I cut it. I want my shows to be popular. I want everyone to like it. The more people who like the show,

the happier I am. So if there's anything in a show that needs to be cut because it's upsetting somebody, let's cut it. So I think it's big for you to say with your work, if it's viewed as that today, you don't have a problem. Cut it. Cut it. So I think it's big for you to say with your work, if it's viewed as that today, you don't have a problem. Cut it. Cut it. I mean, that's a solution. The last thing I want to ever do is put any content in a show that's going to upset my audience and make them want to turn off the TV. Why would I ever want to do that? That makes sense. All right. For all my podcast listeners out there who ever have a hard time sleeping, whether it's you have a tough time sleeping or if you have a tough time staying asleep, I know for me, anytime I wake up in the middle of the night, it's like I never can fall back asleep. I'm up for hours and it's just chaotic.

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Astapro and go. Use as directed for relief of nasal congestion, runny nose, sneezing, and itchy nose due to allergies. So obviously a lot of conversation around this for so many different reasons and so many valid reasons. It's not confirmed so I'm just gonna say right now guys this is all all speculation for what I'm about to tell you, but there was a secret account of Amanda Bynes on Twitter from almost a decade ago where she proved her identity by showing her ID on it, uploading pictures of herself, things like that, saying that she was

using this burner account because her parents basically had control over her actual Twitter account because of the conservatorship, and that she wanted to bring certain darkness to light. In those tweets, which at the time was kind of when Amanda started going on a little bit of a downward spiral, so people were taking it with a grain of salt, not really sure what to do with it, but in these tweets she's identifying a lot of concerning behavior. And in one specific tweet, she writes out this message and has certain capital letters in it, kind of like a Taylor Swift code thing, where the capital letters all spell out Dan did it. There is also an allegation from her saying that she was pregnant at 13 years old and had an abortion. So as you can imagine, now with everything coming out, people are

like, oh my gosh, she must have been pregnant from Dan, she got the abortion, that's why her mental health has declined in such a way, not because of just that, but because of, you know, ongoing abuse over the years, because she has alleged her parents were abusive. She had alleged at one point that her parents, I believe, were giving her Adderall onset as a kid non-stop because they were demanding her to work these insane hours, which when you look back and see what a star Amanda Bynes truly was and how it's gotten from A to Z, it is very, very difficult and heartbreaking to watch the progression. I grew up with Amanda Bynes, not personally, but like that era, and so I remember the Amanda show, what a girl wants, all of her movies, and it's just very, very sad seeing it. But my point in all of that, I don't know if any of that's true obviously and Amanda has yet to speak out herself, but there also is another

rumor and again I'm just gonna clarify it is a rumor. I don't want you to go running with this, but there is a rumor that Jamie Lynn Spears also who was pregnant as a young teenager was pregnant by Dan and that that's his baby. I don't know if they've ever done a DNA test. I don't know if anything's come out about who that father truly is, but that was a rumor going on years ago. It's now a rumor that his resurfaced. I guess a quick DNA test would give the answer to that, but they don't have to do a test like that unless he's chart. I mean I don't know all the legalities of it guys, but I'm just kind of sharing with you everything that people are talking about because this goes so so deep and

in addition to all of these nickelodeon stars getting justice, I hope that it kind of like Parlay's into a bigger conversation about using children for content in general because yes, they were child actors They were working actors. They were making money Yes, they were child actors. They were working actors. They were making money. But now we're in this whole new era of mom influencers, family vloggers using their children for content. But the children aren't making the money. The parents are making the money. So it's almost worse in a way if you kind of like think of where the progression is going and how it's evolving. So I'm hopeful that by all of these things getting exposed more and more and coming to light,

it hopefully will have a positive impact on what legally people can do in terms of using their children for content in the future. And there's more to come on all of this guys. I'm currently in the process of doing not only a full deep dive episode on everything Nickelodeon, all of the allegations, all of the victims, all the Twitters, the secret accounts, everything. There's so, so, so much information that literally dates back decades. So it's taking us quite a while to compile it all, to get it to where it's digestible and easy to understand. We also are working with getting a few certain special particular guests in here who firsthand can account for what went

down there. I can't say much more than that, but that deep dive is coming and sidebar to that, we are going to be talking about family vlogging, using children for content, a lot of that in an upcoming episode, again with a very special professional guest who will be talking about this and the impact that this has on children about how pedophiles are using this content specifically to work around when they're on parole or how they can go undetected what they're using it for what It's it's so much crazier than any of us think even myself who I feel like I have a pretty good understanding of

That world what they're using it for what what the capabilities are. When I spoke with some of these professionals who again will be on the episode with me, I was blown away. My mind hadn't even gone to that deep dark corner of what the truth really is and it is so disgusting and so unsettling when you actually think about it. So disgusting and so unsettling when you actually think about it. So those deep dives are coming up guys. Stay tuned. But now let's talk about Riley Strain. Because the search for missing college student Riley Strain is still ongoing. If you aren't familiar with that case, Riley is a 22 year old University of Missouri student

who disappeared while he was on a fraternity trip in Nashville on Friday, March 8th. Riley was with friends bar hopping downtown Nashville going bar to bar, and then he ended up getting kicked out of Luke Bryan's bar in downtown Nashville because a bartender said that he had been over-served. So after leaving the bar by himself, Riley was then seen on multiple surveillance videos after leaving the bar, and he was walking, running, stumbling, and also even falling at times. Riley's friends first realized that something was wrong when Riley wasn't back at the hotel where they were staying at, and then when they tried calling him, Riley never answered. Now here's where things get really interesting. He was kicked out of that bar for being over-served, right?

Which is possible if they were bar hopping. But an investigation from the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission into the bar to see if they had in fact over-served Riley revealed that they had only served him one drink. Riley's parents told the media that Riley and his friends were drinking throughout the day though, so that's likely why he appeared intoxicated and was then kicked out of the bar even though he only had one drink there. There was a lot of conversation about was he slipped something potentially, which definitely might be a possibility, but it also could just be a component of day drinking all day long and I've been there, done that, I know how dangerous that can be, so who knows what

the truth really is there, but in any event he was kicked out. Now based on his cell phone pings and surveillance video, police were able to narrow down Riley's last known location to an area near the bars and the Cumberland River. But police said that the radius for that ping could be up to two miles. So far, police have searched that area, including a riverbank near where he was last seen on video. They've had search and rescue boats out, a helicopter out, they've searched on foot, but throughout all of that,

they weren't able to find Riley or any sign of him. A family friend spoke to News Nation and said that they don't believe that Riley's phone died, specifically saying, quote, that is something that we have not been able to find and verify.

Riley did have battery power at the time his phone went dark. What we have been told is that the phone did not die due to battery capacity. So did he fall in the river? Well, here's an interview by someone who chose to remain anonymous, but said that he saw Riley that night. A man who's part of the homeless community ball in the river. Well, by someone who chose to r said that he saw Riley th

part of the homeless commu out for the first time on student Riley strain walk path. I seen the guy that down through here. Fox 17 to a transient man who lives a right where Riley was last police near the James Rob

We heard commotion. We lo fell over the last bush ri he was very, very, very e I guess. I mean, it was s anybody. I've never seen that hurt before. The man check on Riley since someone else was already there. I yelled up. They said,

uh, now he's just drunk. He's OK. The man who asked not to be identified says he reported the entire encounter to detectives. He says Riley continued in the same direction up 1st Ave, but then Riley's trail stops. Other security footage,

just a block up the way, doesn't appear to show Riley, according to his family. Searches continued and still there was no sign of Riley. But then on March 17th, nine days into the search, a group of TikTokers who were volunteering in the search for Riley actually found his bank card by the riverbank. Riley's parents confirmed that it really was his card. Now the riverbank that the card was found on looks a lot different than what you might be picturing, so I want to explain it a little bit since I can't obviously, you know, give you a visual. But this isn't like a tranquil riverbank that you just walk up to or hike along or anything like that. To get down to the riverbank in general, it's more difficult than it looks and it's a

pretty steep drop. Depending on what part of the riverbank you're on, it's not like if you fell you'd immediately go into the water either. Sometimes there's a little bit of land below. So where the card was found was not by the water at all. His wallet was also not found, and his parents said that typically his card would have been in his wallet. Also, while the river was being searched on the 17th, a body was found. However, it wasn't Riley. Police later announced it was an adult female. So do a lot of people fall into this river? Is that something that happens with the drunk people downtown with a bit? There's a pretty big homeless community over there. I mean, it's

finding bodies in the riv parents have expressed a with a few things that ar with the police and also tip that they say that th followed up on yet. So ta right to it. Let's help t we know and get the public working hard.

So Michelle, you met with the police yesterday. Were they able to share anything with you that was at least satisfying, anything that you're able to share with us or not able to share with us? No, they just let us know where they are in the investigation and the videos that everybody has seen. So what the media knows and what the public knows is the same as what you know, right? I'm going to clarify on that just a little bit.

They, just so you know, we requested the meeting Friday afternoon late that we get to see the video footage. We had not seen anything or really heard from them too much throughout the week, the previous week. So we were getting frustrated. We wanted to see what they had. So it's not like this was one of those deals. It came up after we called them to tell them that the TikTokers had found

the debit card because they didn't know that it had been found. Supposedly, they didn't know that the call had came in. We arrived before the police. So I'll tell you what, I understand the sensitivity that you all are under. You do not want to criticize the police because right now they are your lifeline to continuing this investigation to finding Riley. I, on the other hand I can and I am steaming mad that I interviewed a woman who works with the homeless who says she could have sworn she saw that shirt on a

homeless man who was acting in an unusual way had an unusual behavior and that he had a bike which is not normal didn't ask for food which is not normal and that the shirt was perfectly clean underneath his dirty hoodie. And she has not been questioned, even as of today when we checked back with her. So Chris, I'll just ask you, if you were able to talk to the police about this, if they mentioned anything about it,

if they've discounted it in any way and why. They have not mentioned that to us at all. We are aware of that. We've heard the same comment. We've also heard multiple people that have tried to call crime stoppers and leave tips and been told they don't know anything about a Riley Strain case. So lots of confusion. We, you know, we're struggling. On Tuesday, March 19th, there was another press conference held by Riley's family so that they could give updates on the search.

Riley's parents announced that they have been working closely with the United Cajun Navy, which is a nonprofit that helps in these sort of things, while still reiterating the need to get more resources on the case. They also were thanking Nashville PD for their work so far. Now, the

United Cajun Navy has been deploying different hovercrafts and airboats to search that river for any sign of Riley. A lot of people in the media and social media, I should say, have been coming after Riley's friends, being like, why'd you let him leave if he was so drunk? Why didn't you follow up with him? Blah, him, blah blah blah blah blah. However, Riley's mom spoke and she defended Riley's friends, saying that they had absolutely nothing to do with it, they're like family, they're heartbroken too, and it was a really touching interview and clip, so let me play it for you. With the boys, I mean they're heartbroken also. I mean he's their best friend. also. I mean, he's their best friend. We love these boys like our own. And it's just as hard on them as it is on us.

And right now, we really are focusing on bringing Riley home. His last point. He's my best friend. He's everything. I can't even imagine what Riley's mom, stepdad, and dad are all going through. It's literally a parent's worst nightmare. Just not knowing where your child is. The unknown. The not knowing. It is such a nightmare. Police also said that they have just been inundated with tips and leads from all different various sources, but none of them have resulted in anything concrete in terms of locating Riley. They also said that some of these quote tips have come from people calling in these tips that are based on their own theories that they got from social media. Now I know that people think that they're being helpful, but is it actually helpful? According to the police in this case, it's not helpful at all. And we've talked about this before in some cases.

Like it's very important to give leads. It's very important to call in tips, certainly. But please, please, please do not bog down the tip line with your theories. No matter how credible you think the theory is, unless it is a legitimate tip or something you witnessed, an eyewitness account, all it does is bog down their tip line because they have to investigate every single tip that comes in. So I just feel like sometimes that can get a little bit reckless and it comes from a good place the majority of the time. People really do just want to help, but when they're just sharing theory after theory, it's something that you're taking resources away from the investigation to look into, and it's not real.

It's not credible. So the police have expressed their frustration with that. Now despite thanking the police in their press conference, the family spokesperson, Chris Dingman, said that Riley's family is 100% confident that he is still alive and that he's somewhere, and that they're super frustrated with the police's search efforts and they're demanding extra boots on the ground. Chris spoke to TMZ and said, quote, Riley's parents simply don't believe their son is dead. For one, the river just isn't that deep, and it doesn't appear to have been roaring on the night he disappeared. So in their eyes, him falling in and being swept away doesn't seem plausible. He also said that from the family's perspective, the cops haven't

turned over every possible stone in trying to track him down, claiming that there are businesses all along the riverbank with surveillance video that weren't even approached until very recently. Now one thing that I do want to add, I'm not exactly sure how deep the river is near the bridge, but the Cumberland River's average depth is 90 feet, and it's approximately 688 miles long. In one video released by the police, Riley is seen on a police body cam while the officer was investigating a truck nearby where Riley had been walking and in the video you can hear the officer and Riley briefly

speak to one another. Take a listen. How you doing Sir? I'm good, how are you good? The family spokesperson said that that's another thing that isn't making sense to Riley's parents, because they believe he came across as coherent, normal. But other surveillance videos captured him looking completely inebriated and out of it,

so they just don't know what to make of it. Riley's parents have also said that they know that Riley's last text message was to someone who had asked him how the night was going, and Riley responded, good lops. Which personally I think this was just a typo for him meeting to say good lol or maybe even good lord, I don't know, probably good lol. But I'm just speculating, I've sent a drunk text a time or two, so again, just my speculation. So recently, on Wednesday, March 21st, the search for Riley intensified as officials confirmed that they were now focusing efforts

at the dam near Ashland City. So the Sheriff's Office said that they would be in that area around noon and they called these efforts a quote, basic shutdown at this facility. It's where the Cumberland River flows into the lake. So they're hoping to find something there. So far, police have said that they don't suspect foul play based on the evidence that they currently have, but said that

that could change, and right now their focus is just entirely and solely on finding Riley. Again, just a heartbreaking case because it is every parent's worst nightmare, worst fear. So I know today was a little bit of a longer episode, guys, but I had a lot of information to give you and I still have so, so much more. Don't forget, in the show notes there are links to the full episodes for some of the cases that we touched on, and then I do have those deep dives coming up regarding Nickelodeon, family content, all of the things, so definitely check back for those. I'm sorry if it sounded like I was underwater today trying to exercise this jaw again and get things moving,

but it is a slow, slow process. As a reminder, if you want extra content because you're running out of things to binge, you can do that. We put out an ad free bonus episode every single Friday and you can get access to that either through Apple directly or over on Patreon, which I will also link in the show notes. And I would suggest going the Patreon route only because there's so much more bonus content over there.

There's bonus videos, there's one-on-one contact with me, there's access to our private group chat, merch discounts, I mean giveaways, all sorts of things. So if you really do want extra extra stuff, head over there. But if you just want an extra episode, you could certainly do that on Apple too. Anyways, I will be back on the mic with you first thing Monday morning with a brand new episode, and in the meantime I hope you are appreciating all of the case coverage. Please don't forget, if you are loving this podcast, please take an extra 30 seconds to leave a rating and review over on Apple. It helps the algorithm, it helps support the podcast,

it takes 30 seconds, it's free to do, and I would greatly appreciate it. And let me know what you're liking, what you wanna hear more of, and all of the things. All right, guys, I am signing off, and I will talk with you soon, bye.